The interview took place during Los Angeles’s ongoing teachers’ strike in Los Angeles, the first of its kind in 30 years in California’s largest city. Roughly two-thirds of children are out of school, creating hardship for tens of thousands of families; many of them poor, working-class, or minority households.

Friedrichs - California - Teachers - Association - Friedrichs

In Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, Friedrichs challenged the Supreme Court’s 1977 decision in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, which held that public sector unions may impose dues on non-members working for government agencies whose employees they ostensibly represent. Abood v. Detroit Board of Education was overturned by the Supreme Court’s 2018 Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31 decision.

Friedrichs - Unions - School - Setting - Bargaining

Friedrichs said, “Everything the unions do in a public school setting is political. Even collective bargaining is political because the unions are on both sides of the table. People they’ve placed into office are sitting on the opposite side of the table. So the taxpayer never has a voice, but the taxpayer pays the bills. So it’s all political.”

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Friedrichs - Strikes - Country - Arguments - Case

Friedrichs said, “Now you know why there are teacher strikes all across the country, because during oral arguments in that case, the union lawyers literally said, and I quote, if the Janus case won and people like myself are freed from being forced to fund unions, the unions would, quote, ‘raise an untold specter of union unrest...